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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Musician Admits He Ripped Off Investors

TACOMA, Wash. (CN) - Musician-producer Kasey Anderson pleaded guilty to defrauding investors of $525,000 for phony music projects he claimed involved famous acts such as (nonparties) Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam.

Kasey E. Anderson was charged in January with five counts of wire fraud; he pleaded guilty Wednesday, according to his plea agreement.

Anderson owns Red River Records and has toured with The Counting Crows with his band The Honkies.

Anderson took $525,838.06 for his bogus projects, but has repaid $160,258 of it, according to the plea agreement.

"As a result, the total loss to investors resulting from Anderson's fraud is approximately $365,580.06," the plea agreement states. That sum will be used to calculate his sentence.

From 2009 to 2011, Anderson raised money for projects, including a compilation album to raise money for "The West Memphis Three," Arkansas men whom many believe were wrongly convicted of a 1994 murder.

Anderson made fake email accounts that appeared to be from prominent members of the music industry to persuade investors his projects were legitimate, and forged statements that a project had made $1.7 million in advance sales, prosecutors said.

He also sent forged bank statements to investors that showed balances of hundreds of thousands of dollars more than actually existed.

Anderson told the Seattle Weekly that he did not mean to defraud anyone.

"To the outside it looks like this guy is just malicious and just bleeds people dry," he was quoted as saying.

"I didn't set out to do this. I abhor the person that I was, and the person that I am. I don't want to be this person. I don't want to be a person who is capable of those things, and when I think about it, don't know how I could be. I'm not that person in my heart."

Anderson will be sentenced on Nov. 22.

He agreed to pay restitution of $365,580.06

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